DICOM Grid, a healthcare IT leader, has recently launched DICOM Grid ImageCare, the first secure, scalable cloud computing platform that makes searching, sharing and exchanging medical images easier. The DICOM Grid ImageCare is a web-based solution that enables medical imaging data to be managed securely, easily and cost-effectively along the entire chain of patient care. Authorized physicians, hospitals and imaging facilities can now collaborate and act on medical imaging data in real time or whenever it’s convenient from any location.

Imaging data are currently stored in expensive data silos and the most common form of data sharing is through hand-deliver or CDs which again can cause security threat. Moreover, physicians and healthcare facilities – including trauma centers – often can’t read the CDs, causing potentially life-threatening treatment delays and costly, possibly harmful, redundant imaging. With ImageCare, exchanging images between any legacy systems becomes easy.

“In today’s connected world, we expect instant, convenient communication. Why should healthcare be an exception, when the inability to quickly obtain vital medical images and information can have life-threatening consequences?” questions DICOM Grid CEO Mike Wall. “We solve this situation with an inexpensive, easy-to-deploy solution. ImageCare allows authorized physicians to store, search and access medical imaging data that has been uploaded onto the DICOM Grid and collaborate in real time with colleagues anywhere in the world.”

ImageCare is built upon DICOM Grid’s patented Split-Merge technology, which allows imaging data to be securely uploaded, archived, and viewed remotely and/or transported wherever and whenever it is needed. This breakthrough technology ensures physicians, hospitals and patients “bring the archive alive” by enabling immediate access to all of a patient’s imaging data regardless of where or when studies were generated. This remote access technology eliminates the need for traditional point-to-point security solutions that have proven difficult and costly to configure, use and manage.

DICOM Grid’s ImageCare platform was beta tested at hospitals, imaging centers and physician practices where it received high marks from physicians and other clinicians, CIOs, CTOs and PACS(picture archiving and communications system) administrators, including feedback from Scott Whyte, Senior Director of Physician and Ambulatory Care IT Strategy at Catholic Healthcare West. “By using DICOM Grid’s ImageCare solution, two of our hospitals have been able to cost-effectively achieve mandatory regulatory compliance with the added benefit of business continuity in the event of planned or unplanned PACS downtime,” Whyte stated.

Federal and state regulations can mandate that an imaging facility or hospital maintain copies of imaging studies for the life of a patient plus five year. This can force a medium-sized hospital to store huge quantities of imaging data that rival the volume of data available through Google Earth. ImageCare allows a facility to eliminate their expensive legacy archival systems while providing enhanced imaging data access and broad new functionality.